Stock Market Video
Shoveling Through the Olympics
Without Curiosity Conviction Is Stubbornness
In Case You Missed It
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In this week's Stock Market Video, I admire the progress made by
the major indexes and tell subscribers to enjoy the resulting buy
signal. But he also cautions that the market is highly reactive to
news, which prevents us from recommending jumping in with both
feet. Stocks discussed include:
SolarWinds (
SWI
), UnderArmour (
UA
), Western Digital (
WDC
), Athenahealth (
ATHN
) and Cabela's (
CAB
)
. Click below to watch the video!
Shoveling Through the Olympics
Not that you need another commentary about the Olympics, but since
they've been going on for at least three months, I think I should
weigh in.
As with most sports fans, my gripe isn't with the Olympics
themselves. I share the common awe at the skills of these dedicated
athletes. I also share the common disgust with the bad stuff:
doping, sore losers and ungracious winners, poor sportsmanship and
unbridled patriotism. Oh, and rhythmic gymnastics, of course, which
is just one of the sports whose esthetics just make me gag.
Synchronized swimming is another, but I'm going to cut the list off
there.
My real gripe is with NBC (Surprise!), whose decision makers are
giving us so much of what they think we want that it's making us
sick.
It used to be that coverage of the Olympics was primarily about the
events themselves. We watched hours of prelims and events with only
the nattering of commentators to distract us. And if the coverage
was always heaviest when our own countrymen were competing, well,
that was okay too.
And then, very occasionally, we would get an "Up Close and
Personal" segment giving us the story of an athlete's life, her
family, his training runs through hip-deep snow, their tragic
relatives or triumphantly supportive communities. All good
stuff.
Television executives found that those segments were wildly
popular, so they added more (and more and more) of them to the mix
until what we have now is the spectacle of a bunch of little
heart-warming narratives running around doing sports. It's like
having a meal that's all garnishes and desserts. It's fun, but it's
not nutritious. My wife calls it "The Olympic Show."
And after a while, it just gets tiresome. Really tiresome.
Personally, I think that someone at NBC needs to stop hiding behind
their audience surveys and make the principled decision that the
network is going to present the Olympics as a sports event. Because
this pre-packaged pandering crap has put me (and lots of other
people I know) so out-of-harmony with the Olympics that I haven't
even been turning the TV on at night.
And that's what I think about the Olympics.
And, since you asked, yes, I do have an investing point to make.
If you suddenly realized that your source for investing news was
giving you more of what you wanted than what you needed, what would
you do?
It's something you should think about, because I think that's
exactly what's happening, especially if you're tuning in to daytime
investment news channels on cable or the more sensational online
services.
How can you tell if you're getting what you need? Ask yourself if
what you're seeing and hearing is just too perpetually dramatic to
be true. If you're being over-warned about impending market
collapses or over-tempted by upcoming bull surges, you're probably
not getting any real useful information. Or maybe you're hearing
yet another story about the marquee stocks like Apple and marquee
leaders like Mark Zuckerberg. If that's the case, what you're
getting is the equivalent of our Olympic coverage, which is too
sensational and too full of useless content.
If you would like to see what genuinely useful stock information
looks like, I would be happy to send you the latest issue of Cabot
Top Ten Trader. Free. Gratis. For nothing.
What you will get is just the 10 strongest stocks in the market
(with no penny stocks, no thinly traded mayflies and no stocks with
good numbers that are just sitting there). The Trader will tell you
why each stock is strong, analyze each chart, give you the
fundamentals and recommend a buy range. It's delivered to regular
subscribers every Monday after the market closes.
If you're interested in solid nuts-and-bolts growth stock
recommendations and finding market leaders before they pop, this
may be exactly the letter for you. It's the 80-20 rule on stock
picking in a weekly letter form.
And if you'll just hit "reply" to this message and put "Free Top
Ten" in the subject line, I'll see that you get the latest issue.
P.S. I still have high hopes for the closing ceremonies at the
Olympics. Keep your fingers crossed.
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Here's this week's Contrary Opinion Button. Remember, you can
always view all of the buttons by
clicking here.
Without Curiosity Conviction Is Stubbornness
In investing, you must always keep an open mind, because (as
another button says) "Unexpected events occur frequently." So while
conviction is a wonderful attribute, particularly if it's achieved
via comprehensive research and it goes against the spirit of the
crowd, it should never be so firm that it is blind to new
information. [Editor's note: As someone (probably economist Paul
Samuelson, and not John Maynard Keynes as everyone thinks) is
supposed to have responded to an accusation that he had changed his
mind: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do,
sir?" Curiosity is a taste for changing facts.]
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In case you didn't get a chance to read all the issues of
Cabot Wealth Advisory
this week and want to catch up on any investing and stock tips you
might have missed, there are links below to each issue.
Cabot Wealth Advisory 8/6/12 - The World in
2050
In this issue,
Cabot Global Energy Investor
editor Lou Gagliardi looks at the long-term consumption trends,
especially in the U.S. and China, that will boost oil prices in the
coming years. Featured stock:
Plains All American Pipeline (PAA)
.
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Cabot Wealth Advisory 8/9/12 - The 80/20 Rule
In this issue, I look at the wildly popular Pareto Principle that
sees big effects coming from small causes. Featured stock:
Chemical & Mining Company of Chile (SQM).
Have a great weekend,
Paul Goodwin
Editor,
Cabot Wealth Advisory